Practice Survey

Patient Participation Group

STAINES HEALTH GROUP PATIENT PARTICIPATION REPORT 2015/16

History of Our Patient Representative Group:

We have now been working with our ‘virtual’ patient participation or reference group since 2011. The ‘virtual’ nature of the group appealed both to the practice and to the ‘volunteers’ who had expressed their interest in a group prior to this but were unable to make regular meetings at a mutually convenient time.

We emailed over 800 patients in July 2011 and at the same time put up posters in the practice and added invitations to letters sent to patients for other matters. We put messages on the patient display board in the waiting room (the Jayex) and spread the invitation by word of mouth. This initial invitation resulted in 46 positive responses. We needed to ensure that the group was as representative as possible of the patient population and that representatives of different groups were engaged. We analysed the PRG by age/sex and ethnicity and found it satisfactory despite a larger than representative number of ladies between 31and 50. However we also found the elderly were under represented and no carers whatsoever listed. We therefore approached Age Concern and with their help recruited 4 elderly patients willing to participate. We already have a list of carers registered with the practice so we wrote to all the carers and invited them to join. Fortunately 6 stepped forward and so this group is now well represented.We noted a good mix of occupations together with housewives, unemployed and the retired.

We have continued to seek recruits to the patient representative group through invitation at the point of registration, notices, our website and newsletter. A few members have left and a few new ones have joined in 2015/16 and the group now numbers 52.

Patient Survey 2015/16

In 2014/15 the Department of Health dropped the requirement for GP practices to run an annual patient satisfaction survey. Instead, the ‘Friends and Family Test’ was introduced. This is a much simpler question to pose ie:

“Based on your experience today, how likely are you to recommend us to friends and family”

This question is posed each time a patient has a contact with a practice clinician, via messages in the waiting room, posters, cards, our website and texts sent after the appointment if patients have mobile numbers on our records. We are required to publish the results which we do so on our website, and at the practice.

The results for 2015/16 are:

April 2015 95.5%

May 2015 98.9%

June 2015 97.1%

July 2015 97.6%

August 2015 97.1%

September 2015 98.9%

October 2015 98.5%

November 2015 94.0%

December 2015 97.1%

January 2016 96.5%

February 2016 95.6%

March 2016 95.5%

Were extremely likely or likely to recommend us to friends and family.

As we did not have to run a full patient survey from 14/15, we surveyed a number of the services we offer and asked patients on our warfarin monitoring programme, patients who underwent wound care, patients who had ear irrigation and those who had coils or nexplanons fitted to report their satisfaction with various elements of the service, the results were published in last year’s report. We then reviewed the results and looked to address any areas possible to improve satisfaction scores. One clear area was the provision of printed information, following the procedure. In 2015/16 our clinicians produced appropriate materials and these are now provided as part of the service. Another area was the availability of suitable appointments for coil or nexplanon fittings and for ear irrigation. We arranged for additional staff to be trained in these areas and increased the number of slots available for both services. We then re-surveyed satisfaction with the services in the last quarter of 2015/16 year. The results see link below:

(Satisfaction is calculated as scores out of 10 for each question, weighted for the number of responses) Written post procedure information had been provided where applicable in 93% of cases and was regarded as very useful by over 90% of all respondents. An improvement in the satisfaction with availability of suitable appointments is also evidenced. Many thanks to all who participated.

PROGRESS ON LAST YEARS AGREED IMPROVEMENT PLAN:

Our Plan for last year was:

To further improve patients ability to get through on the phone at peak times by installing additional telephone lines – this time with an agreed implementation date – this was implemented during the year, significantly increasing our line capacity

- To continue our successful plan to embrace e-communication, we will allow patients to email their GP using a generic email address – this is now up and running as announced in our winter newsletter

- To improve the 24 hour blood pressure monitoring service by shortening the waiting time and offering more convenient exchange of monitor through purchase of a second machine – this was done in February 2015 but unfortunately our older machine has been out of service during the year due to faults which we have been unable to have rectified. The waiting time for a 24hr BP is now 20 days.

IMPROVEMENT PLAN FOR 2016/17:

We will be asking our PRG members for their input to our improvement plan for the coming year especially looking at our appointment system and particularly their views on ending our 2.00 p.m. release of appointments, access and on-line access to medical records. Once we have our plan for 2016/17 we will update this information.

To join our patient reference group, simply send us an email at;

staineshealthgroup.nhs.net or pick up a form from reception

Our opening times at the surgery are:

Monday –Friday 8.00 a.m. – 6.00 (telephones manned to 6.30 p.m.)

Saturdays 8.00 – 11.45 (pre-booked GP and nurse appointments)

Full details of how to access all our services at all times are available via our website, our patient brochure (downloadable from the website or in leaflet form at the surgery) or by telephoning the practice on 01784 465229 or 01784 461712.

In 2014/15 the Department of Health dropped the requirement for GP practices to run an annual patient satisfaction survey. Instead, the ‘Friends and Family Test’ was introduced. This is a much simpler question to pose ie:

“Based on your experience today, how likely are you to recommend us to friends and family”

This question is posed each time a patient has a contact with a practice clinician, via messages in the waiting room, posters, cards, our website and texts sent after the appointment if patients have mobile numbers on our records. We are required to publish the results which we do so on our website, and at the practice.

The results so far:

December 2014 - 94.1%

January 2015 - 96.2%

February 2015 - 98.9%

Were extremely likely or likely to recommend us to friends and family.

As we did not have to run a full patient survey, we decided to survey a number of the services we offer and asked patients on our warfarin monitoring programme, patients who underwent wound care, patients who had ear irrigation and those who had coils or nexplanons fitted to report their satisfaction with various elements of the service, the results were as follows:

Patient satisfaction levels with services in 2014/15:

Coil/Nexplanon Insertion

Ear irrigation

INR

Dressings

How satisfied were you with the referral arrangements to the clinic?

93.8

93.3

100

100

To what extent do you find the location of the clinic accessible?

92.2

100

100

98

To what extent do you find the parking at the clinic convenient?

70

86.7

85

65

How satisfied are you with the appointment times for the clinic?

95.6

93.3

100

96

How satisfied are you with the waiting area?

93.3

93.3

96.7

98

How satisfied are you with the punctuality (time keeping) of the clinic appts?

87.8

100

98.3

94

How satisfied are you with the length of appointments at the clinic?

93.3

100

100

100

How satisfied are you with the availability of suitable appointments?

84.4

86.7

98.3

97.8

How satisfied are you with the ease of changing appointments?

96.5

93.3

100

97.1

How satisfied are you with the clinicians performance of the procedure?

95.3

100

100

100

How useful is the printed information you have been given?

91.8

93.3

96.7

100

How satisfied are you with the verbal information and advice you receive?

97.5

100

100

100

How satisfied are you with the the clinic overall

97.5

100

100

100

(Satisfaction is calculated as scores out of 10 for each question, weighted for the number of responses)

PROGRESS ON LAST YEARS AGREED IMPROVEMENT PLAN:

Our plan for last year was:

- We will strive to improve the availability of routine appointments with the doctor of choice by removing Monday morning ‘triage’ and our former ‘duty doctor’ system, replacing this with same day ‘urgent’ appointments at the ratio recommended by the Primary Care Foundation and linked to our general patterns of daily demand. We will aim to have routine appointments bookable within 4-5 days

- We will increase staff on duty each morning (previously just Mondays) to deal with the peak telephone demand and consider the introduction of a further incoming line – in view of increased staffing - subject to cost

- We will run an initiative to collect further email addresses and mobile numbers in order to continue to move to e-communication (both email and text) and increase the areas in which we use such communication in view of the positive response to this received via the survey

We have carried out our plan and changed our entire appointment system. Initially this worked extremely well and we met our target time to first routine appointment right up until our first GP left us in April 2014 (Dr Zahr), our 2nd in May for maternity (Dr Patel) our 3rd in November to go to Australia (Dr Mehta) and our 4th in December for maternity (Dr Nwanze). An inability to recruit replacements led us to rely on locums who were sometimes in short supply creating pressure on routine appointments such that our current time to first routine appointment is 7 working days – we hope to improve this when we are back up to strength.

We have also changed our reception team rotas so that 4 members of staff are available every morning – this has improved our telephone answering ability at peak times but this will be further enhanced when part of the current years plan is implemented – ie an increase in our telephone lines.

Our initiative to collect further email addresses and mobile numbers has been very successful with around 60% of patients now having either email or mobile number on file – an increase of approximately 30% on the previous year. This makes such good sense for communication, enabling us to email clinic reminder letters, invitations and our popular newsletter to more and more patients and to use text appointment reminders, campaigns and surveys – we feel we have really moved into the 21st Century so thanks to our PRG for urging us to move forward with this.

IMPROVEMENT PLAN FOR 2014/15:

Without the survey to act as the catalyst for our improvement plan this year, we looked to our PRG for suggestions and in August 2014 we emailed the group asking for their thoughts on priority areas. Following feedback, we put together a plan based on a combination of suggestions and advice:

- We will further improve patients ability to get through on the phone at peak times by installing additional telephone lines – this time with an agreed implementation date – ie the order has now been placed and the lines will be installed within 6-8 weeks

- To continue our successful plan to embrace e-communication, we will allow patients to email their GP using a generic email address – this is already up and running as announced in our winter newsletter

- To improve the 24 hour blood pressure monitoring service by shortening the waiting time and offering more convenient exchange of monitor through purchase of a second machine – this was done in February 2015

The plan had to be approved by our PRG and in January 2015 – all group members were asked to agree the plan and one to volunteer to sign it off. My thanks to all for the positive responses and to our PRG member for signing it off. A copy of the ‘official’ plan that we submitted to NHS Surrey & Sussex area team can be viewed via the following link:

Full details of how to access all our services at all times are available via our website, our patient brochure (downloadable from the website or in leaflet form at the surgery) or by telephoning the practice on 01784 465229 or 01784 461712.

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Patient Satisfaction Survey 2013/14

This year’s survey was run using an on-line survey facility which enabled patients to enter their responses directly. In addition we made survey forms available within the practice and sent forms out with all our usual invitation letters during the period the survey was open (01/11/13 – 20/12/13).

The survey questions were designed with the help of our virtual patient reference group so that the questions were about issues that mattered to you the patients. Should anyone wish to join our patient reference group, simply email staineshealthgroup@nhs.net with your request and we will add you to our circulation list.

We collected 310 responses to our survey – much the same as last year.

In summary:

We have looked at the results in terms of the percentage of patients responding to each question who are satisfied/very satisfied/extremely satisfied.

Overall the high level of satisfaction with the practice remains and a huge 97.8% of respondents would recommend us to friends and family.Overall satisfaction with the clinical care at the practice remains exceptionally high at the level of 97.7%.

Conversely, satisfaction with getting an appointment for routine issues has fallen from 93.6% last year to 84.7% this year and getting through on the telephone from 88.8% to 80.7%. 55 patients felt they should be seen the same day, or the next day with a routine problem – an ideal we would all welcome but not one we could achieve with present resources. Just over 90% of patients who needed an urgent appointment were able to get one on the same day – we hope we can make this 100% next year. Most people were satisfied with the system of being able to speak to a doctor on the telephone but surprisingly to us, 20% of respondents were not aware this was possible.

Satisfaction with our reception team remains high at almost 95% (satisfied/very satisfied or extremely satisfied) and the same level of satisfaction was reported for getting test results and repeat medications.

Almost all respondents (98%) were satisfied with our communication and found our new newsletter useful (previous editions are available on this website) and almost 65% would be happy to receive email rather than letter invitations in future. On-line appointment booking and repeat prescription ordering remain popular (94%) and most patients were satisfied with our opening times (93%).

Our action plan to address the issues identified through the survey and agreed with our patient participation group are:

We will strive to improve the availability of routine appointments with the doctor of choice by removing Monday morning ‘triage’ and our former ‘duty doctor’ system, replacing this with same day ‘urgent’ appointments at the ratio recommended by the Primary Care Foundation and linked to our general patterns of daily demand. We will aim to have routine appointments bookable within 4-5 days.

We will increase staff on duty each morning (previously just Mondays) to deal with the peak telephone demand and consider the introduction of a further incoming line – in view of increased staffing - subject to cost.

We will run an initiative to collect further email addresses and mobile numbers in order to continue to move to e-communication (both email and text) and increase the areas in which we use such communication in view of the positive response to this received via the survey.

Progress on last year’s action plan is detailed in the full Patient Participation Report for 2013/14 – downloadable from this page.

As ever, I am very grateful to everyone who took the time and thought to complete the survey and help us improve the services we provide.